ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2702 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2702 ************************************ 16 Mar 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether or is an appropriate name for a Gaelic woman in late 11th or 12th century Scotland. This letter is a brief answer to your question. The feminine name and the masculine names and appear in a 12th century Scottish Gaelic source [1, 2]. The slash in the first name represents an acute accent mark on the preceding letter. is recorded in the 11th and 12th centuries in Ireland [3, 4]. We have no evidence that it was also used in Scotland, but it is possible that it was. In order to build a complete name out of these elements, you need the possessive (genitive) form of your father's name. The standard genitive form of is or , but it appears in our 12th century Scottish Gaelic source as [1, 5]. Any of these spellings is appropriate. The genitive form of is . Thus the correct forms of the two names you chose are: E/ua ingen Lulaich Tailltiu ingen Domnaill Since both elements of the first name were definitely used in Scotland, it is better re-creation. It was pronounced \AY-v@ EEN-y@n LOO-l@ch\, where \@\ represents the sound of the 'a' in and . The second name was pronounced \TAHL~-tch@ EEN-y@n DOHV-n@l~\. \L~\ represents a blend of an \l\ with the \y\ in ; this is the sound of in the French word or of in Italian . \OH\ stands for the vowel in . In both and , the sound we've represented as \v\ is more precisely a bilabial fricative, i.e. a \v\ made while vibrating your two lips together rather than vibrating one of them against your teeth. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Adelaide de Beaumont, Leonor Martin, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 16 Mar 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Krossa, Sharon L. (Effric neyn Kenyeoch vc Ralte), "A Simple Guide to Constructing 12th Century Scottish Gaelic Names", (WWW: Privately published, 18 June 1997). http://www.MedievalScotland.org/scotnames/simplescotgaelicnames12.shtml [2] Black, George F., _The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History_, (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986), s.nn. Lulach, MacLulich. In the first entry, Black mentions an 11th century . In the later, he mentioned a 14th century , a Lowland Scots rendering of the Gaelic name . [3] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Index of Names in Irish Annals: Feminine Names" (WWW: Academy of S. Gabriel, 2000-2002). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/AnnalsIndex/Feminine/ [4] O/ Corra/in, Donnchadh and Fidelma Maguire, _Irish Names_ (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1990), s.nn. Tailltiu. [5] Donnchadh O/ Corra/in & Mavis Cournane, "The Annals of Ulster" (WWW: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland, 1997), entry 1085.1 . http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100001/.